lled a
Lion, forsooth; he hath foully faulted towards me in failing to send the
auxiliary aid he promised. Let me tell thee, Edith, thou mayest live to
prefer a true Turk to a false Scot."

"No--never!" answered Edith--"not should Richard himself embrace the
false religion, which he crossed the seas to expel from Palestine."

"Thou wilt have the last word," said Richard, "and thou shalt have it.
Even think of me what thou wilt, pretty Edith. I shall not forget that
we are near and dear cousins."

So saying, he took his leave in fair fashion, but very little satisfied
with the result of his visit.

It was the fourth day after Sir Kenneth had been dismissed from the
camp, and King Richard sat in his pavilion, enjoying an evening breeze
from the west, which, with unusual coolness on her wings, seemed
breathed from merry England for the refreshment of her adventurous
Monarch, as he was gradually recovering the full strength which was
necessary to carry on his gigantic projects. There was no one with
him, De Vaux having been sent to Ascalon to bring up reinforcements and
supplies of military munition, and most of his other attendants being
occupied in different departments, all preparing for the re-opening
of hostilities, and for a grand preparatory review of the army of the
Crusaders, which was to take place the next day. The King sat listening
to the busy hum among the soldiery, the clatter from the forges, where
horseshoes were preparing, and from the tents of the armourers, who were
repairing harness. The voice of the soldiers, too, as they passed
and repassed, was loud and cheerful, carrying with its very tone an
assurance of high and excited courage, and an omen of approaching
victory. While Richard's ear drank in these sounds with delight, and
while he yielded himself to the visions of conquest and of glory which
they suggested, an equerry told him that a messenger from Saladin waited
without.

"Admit him instantly," said the King, "and with due honour, Josceline."

The English knight accordingly introduced a person, apparently of no
higher rank than a Nubian slave, whose appearance was nevertheless
highly interesting. He was of superb stature and nobly formed, and his
commanding features, although almost jet-black, showed nothing of negro
descent. He wore over his coal-black locks a milk-white turban, and over
his shoulders a short mantle of the same colour, open in front and at
the sleeves, under which appear